Give it another chance, by hacking to the ground now, you may be pleasantly surprized! You often see stems of the berries in bouquets of flowers in the summer!
I have a couple of clumps around the garden and in a previous garden left them for a year or two and they looked like yours! Now they are cut down in January or February and flowers and berries grow on the new shoots. I recognised yours from the berries.
Hard to tell from the photos but if it's shrubby could it be buckthorn? It has small white flowers, blue/black fruit and is not particularly appealing to look at..
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